Silvertips open long road trip with 2-1 loss to Wheat Kings

Published 1:30 am Friday, February 10, 2017

BRANDON, Manitoba — Friday night was a homecoming for seven Everett Silvertips who hail from the province of Manitoba.

However, it wasn’t the warm welcome those players were hoping for as the Tips fell 2-1 to the host Brandon Wheat Kings before 4,866 fans at Westman Place.

Everett (30-12-8-2, 70 points) is now winless in eight of its last nine games. They entered the game one point in front of Seattle for the top spot in the U.S. Division standings. The Thunderbirds beat the Tri-City Americans 6-2 late Friday to take over the top spot.

The Wheat Kings (27-20-5-2, 61 points) rode a stellar performance from goaltender Logan Thompson who earned first-star honors with 34 saves as Everett outshot the Brandon 35-29.

Trailing 2-0 after the opening period, Everett finally found the net on its fourth power play. Eetu Tuulola tipped in Noah Juulsen’s wrister to cut the deficit to 2-1 at 4:31 in the third.

That was it for the scoring as the Tips were unable to capitalize on a pair of late final-period power plays and finished 1-for-5 on the man advantage.

The Wheat Kings took a 1-0 lead at 2:06 in the opening period when Rylan Bettens deflected the puck past Mario Petit to give them the early advantage.

Brandon pushed it to 2-0 on the power play with less than a minute to play in the opening period. Juulsen took a penalty at 19:07 and Tyler Coulter’s 24th goal of the season came 17 seconds later as Brandon took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission despite being outshot 18-9 by Everett in the opening frame.

Petit, getting the start in his home province, earned the second star with 27 saves.

Everett saw the return of captain Juulsen and overage defenseman Lucas Skrumeda from lower body injuries, and forward Connor Dewar from an upper body injury after missing the first game of his WHL career last Saturday.

The Tips return to action at 5 p.m. Saturday at Moose Jaw.

Wheat Kings 2, Silvertips 1

Everett 0 0 1 — 1

Brandon 2 0 0 — 2

1st Period—1, Brandon, Bettens 4 (Lewis), 2:06. 2, Brandon, Coulter 24 (Mattheos, Patrick), 19:24 (PP). Penalties—Russell Bdn (tripping), 5:11; Bukac Bdn (checking from behind), 11:12; Bukac Bdn (too many men), 13:17; Juulsen Evt (checking to the head), 19:07.

2nd Period—No Scoring. Penalties—Fonteyne Evt (tripping), 9:39.

3rd Period—3, Everett, Tuulola 12 (Juulsen, Irving), 4:31 (PP). Penalties—Thompson Bdn (slashing), 4:14; Patrick Bdn (checking from behind), 6:31; Clague Bdn (roughing), 15:07.

Shots on Goal—Everett 18-6-11-35. Brandon 9-12-8-29.

Power Play Opportunities—Everett 1 / 6; Brandon 1 / 2.

Goalies—Everett, Petit 10-5-2-1 (29 shots-27 saves). Brandon, Thompson 10-9-4-2 (35 shots-34 saves).

A—4,866